A new research published in the Geophysical Research Letters journal last November, provides an insight into how earthquake warning signals are produced by faults. To do so, laboratory experiments were conducted using a biaxial shear configuration, implementing powerful pistons to squeeze layers of glass beads.
The glass beads represent the crushed clay and rock along the fault and the pressure created by the pistons mimics the forces that lead to an earthquake. According to the findings, the squeaking of the beads or the "acoustic emissions", resembling small earthquakes, happen right before the main earthquake. The signals range from small not easily detected shocks along the fault line to catastrophic quakes. Paul Johnson, a geophysicist at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico and lead study author, said that the study shows the need of a dense network of quake monitors in order to detect all of these signals. Although real conditions differ from a lab environment, geoscientists hope that by better understanding these precursors, they may locate areas with increased earthquake risk with the intention of warning the public. "We're not going to predict when an event takes place. [But] this kind of observation can be tested to see whether or not this information will be useful for earthquake hazard and predicting intervals of increased seismic risk", Johnson said.
Source: LiveScience
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